American Mariner will take taconite out

Six boats were recently sold by the Oglebay Norton Company in Cleveland to American Steamship in Buffalo. With that sale came 6 name changes. It has been hard to keep track of the changes. One change was a little easier because the renaming happened at Fraser Shipyards in Superior. There, the Courtney Burton became the American Fortitude. The other 5 boats received new names at the same time at other shipyards around the Great Lakes. Each new boat name started with American. The 5 had these second names: Valor, Integrity, Century, Courage and Victory. The American Mariner will be coming into port today to load taconite pellets for Indiana Harbor. It has been the American Mariner since it was launched by American Steamship in 1980, although when construction started on it, the name was to be Chicago. Photo taken June 25, 2002.